Author: Jasvan Ram is a 4th-year law student at Tamil Nadu National Law University
For Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), the assurance of equality and non-discrimination can often seem unattainable without reasonable accommodations that transform these rights into a tangible reality. Notwithstanding legal frameworks such as the UNCRPD and India’s RPWD Act of 2016, workplace inclusion remains limited, as persons with disabilities encounter systemic obstacles in employment, accessibility, and acceptance.
This blog examines the obstacles faced by persons with disabilities in the workplace and emphasises the pivotal influence of technology, skill development, and societal transformation in fostering inclusive environments. By accepting diversity and promoting equitable practices, we can create workplaces where all individuals prosper collectively.
Introduction
“[F]or a person with disability, the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights to equality, the six freedoms and the right to life under Article 21 will ring hollow if they are not given … additional support that helps make these rights real and meaningful for them. Reasonable accommodation is the instrumentality — are an obligation as a society — to enable the disabled to enjoy the constitutional guarantee of equality and non-discrimination.” [1]
Worldwide, there are more than a billion people who are disabled. Individuals who are disabled are especially susceptible to poverty. Compared to those without impairments, they have poorer access to social welfare, health care, work possibilities, and education. People with disabilities (hereinafter referred to as PwD) often face stigmatisation, inadequate information systems, and other obstacles that make it difficult for them to participate appropriately in decision-making processes and, as a result, limit their ability to claim their rights properly.
Although individuals in international cooperation have been emphasising individuals with disabilities more in their work for a while now, there is still more that needs to be done in general. In private undertakings, inclusion remains an unfulfilled dream for individuals with impairments. Encouraging inclusivity in the workplace is both a positive obligation and a crucial necessity for private businesses.
Workplace Realities: Challenges Faced by Employees with Disabilities
A significant advancement, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was ratified by many UN member states, including India, after it was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2006. The PwD Act, 1995 is superseded by the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act, 2016, which implements the UNCRPD. According to Section 2s of the PWD Act, a “person with disability” is a person who has a physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairment that has persisted for a long time and, when paired with additional obstacles, keeps them from completely and equally participating in society. As per Section 21 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act of 2016, all institutions must disclose their equal opportunity policy and the measures they plan to take to adhere to the Act’s obligations.[2]
With an inclination towards the social and rights-based approach to disability, the act places a strong emphasis on giving people with disabilities (PwD) equal employment opportunities and guiding the organised sector through several programmes, including affirmative action and reservation policies in government and public sector organisations and incentives for private sector employers to hire PwD. Statistics show that PwD have lower employment rates than the overall population, notwithstanding these efforts and instructions.[3]
According to a recent analysis by the Economic Times, there are just three employees with impairments for every 1,000 at India’s top corporations. This gives rise to grave concerns regarding the workforce’s inclusion and the chances afforded to individuals with disabilities in private sector endeavours. Only five of the Nifty 50 constituent firms have more than one percent of employees with disabilities on their payroll, with four of them being public sector organisations, according to the most recent workforce data provided by these corporations as part of their annual disclosures.[4]
The percentage of PwDs who work for themselves is larger than those without impairments. Based on the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (2016), over 36% of PwD in India are working, with 23% being categorised as cultivators, 31% as agriculture labourers, 4% working in domestic industries, and 42% being categorised as others.[5] Most people with disabilities who are employed are in the unorganised sector and work as freelancers, subcontractors, home-based employees, and other non-wage workers.
PwD make up only 1%–2% of the workforce in many modern businesses, despite their attempts to promote disability employment and inclusion. Compared to the vast number of PwD who are unemployed and who still struggle to find work in the organised sector, this is pitifully little and negligible[6]. Even when there is a law that has a positive obligation on all companies to have an inclusive workplace there is no change and still PwDs are being restricted and discriminated against in the workplace.
Recommendations and Way Forward
Employees with disabilities have particularly low levels of job satisfaction, loyalty, and willingness to work hard, and they also express greater intentions to leave their jobs in worksites where workers generally perceive lower levels of company fairness and responsiveness.[7] While training them may require some investment, once trained, their productivity is significantly higher.
The rate of global transformation can be attributed to the technological revolution of the past several decades. If the technological revolution is implemented inclusively, people with disabilities may have greater access to the labour market. Digital technology makes it easier for people to participate in training by enabling more flexible and compact learning settings.
Samsung designs its products using the 4C (Consideration, Coherence, Comprehensiveness, Co-Creation) Principles for Accessibility Experience Design to provide goods that are accessible to people with impairments[8]. A Microsoft funding initiative called AI for Accessibility uses AI to increase human potential for people with disabilities. Inclusivity is what AI for Accessibility seeks to achieve through grants, tech investments, and experience. Many successful technological advancements were carried out by the company for an inclusive environment.[9]
Skill mismatches and shortages are issues that organisations must deal with. Because innovation processes are becoming more and more compressed, workers must constantly refresh their knowledge and abilities. Considering this situation, businesses, academic institutions, and government agencies must ensure that workers receive the training necessary to address the skills that employers are seeking.
In the same vein, they must ensure that workers receive continual training and support throughout their lifelong learning process. In this situation, it will be even more important to make sure that people with disabilities have the necessary skills, and this will affect both those who are already in the workforce and those who may be in danger of losing their jobs.
Everyone will need to prioritise lifelong learning, which includes those with disabilities.
The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities has introduced the National Action Plan for Skill Development of Persons with Disabilities for the skilful upliftment of PwDs.[10] This is seen as an welcoming move to uplift the PwDs in order for a better working environment.
Employers have a positive duty to hire persons with disabilities and to make their workplace accessible. This goes beyond just hiring people with impairments. It is the employer’s responsibility to make sure that a disabled worker has access to the necessary facilities, such as easily accessible restrooms, conveniently positioned workstations, and appropriate seating arrangements.
Furthermore, the business should spend on making the workplace more accessible to those with impairments. The business must also plan sensitization efforts to change the unfavourable “attitude” that penetrates workplaces and inspire workers to accept employees from all backgrounds.
The researcher asserts that a positive change can be brought in the Indian workplace through these methods. Success in an organisation now depends not only on turnover but also on its capacity to develop and retain talent in addition to its forward-thinking attitude. In order to make the “real difference,” organisations hoping to outperform their competitors in terms of productivity will have to let go of a number of their preconceived beliefs and deviate from their planned paths.
Conclusion
Companies should put in place disability-friendly hiring processes to maximise workers’ productivity. Organisations should aim for human resource systems that are inclusive of people with disabilities rather than those that are exclusive to them when it comes to the practical design of these activities, which are rooted in belief systems. All technological, skill and social upliftment is required for an inclusive environment. The government and the companies should take innovative measures to foster the same.
Provisions like job flexibility and integration initiatives are crucial cornerstones of social inclusion; these should be bolstered by inclusive hiring practices, equitable performance evaluation and advancement procedures, and training accessibility for all staff groups. Ability-inclusive HR systems will, in turn, promote positive views of diversity throughout the entire organisation, facilitating the well-being and productivity of various minority groups (such as senior employees), and thus improving organisational performance.
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